When people contact Love INC, a member records their information and puts them in touch with an organization or church that can meet their needs.

When someone contacts Love INC with a need or want that the organization cannot meet, members always are willing to listen, Jones said. No one is turned away.

Jones views Love INC's clearinghouse work as the first of three stages for the organization. She would like to see Love INC form a relational ministry.

She compared missions such as the coat drive to fixing a leak in a dam by sticking a finger in a hole.

The relational ministry would fix the dam, she said.

The last stage, which some Love INC chapters across the country have already achieved, would feature the creation of long-term physical services, such as low-cost health or eye clinics or mental health counseling centers.

Rob Gebhart can be reached at 824-7031 or rgebhart@craigdailypress.com.